CVE-2020-1764
HIGHCVE-2020-1764 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) CWE-321 vulnerability in github.com/kiali/kiali. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-1764 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Hard coded cryptographic key in Kiali
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-1764 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 0 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/kiali/kialiReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A hard-coded cryptographic key vulnerability in the default configuration file was found in Kiali, all versions prior to 1.15.1. A remote attacker could abuse this flaw by creating their own JWT signed tokens and bypass Kiali authentication mechanisms, possibly gaining privileges to view and alter the Istio configuration.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/kiali/kiali | all versions | 1.15.1 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/kiali/kiali. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/kiali/kiali to 1.15.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-1764 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-1764 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-1764. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
If exploited, an attacker can perform all Kiali admin functions via the API including: - View the logs of a pod - View Istio metrics, tracing etc. - Alter Istio routing configurations: - Change the pod availability: adding variances to the weighting, i.e. all traffic goes to 1 pod, or 95% of all traffic. - Prevent…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-1764 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-1764 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.